Nehemiahs Prayer

If you haven’t already, please turn in your copies of God’s Word to Nehemiah chapter 1. It is page 503 in the Pew Bibles. In a little while I will read this aloud, when I do, please be prepared to stand in reverence to the reading of God’s Word.

It has been 2 weeks since we began our study in Nehemiah so, let’s take a few minutes to do a review of what we looked at so far in the book.

To begin with we discussed the fact that God does not operate in the same way we do. His choice of Nehemiah to lead the rebuilding effort of the wall around Jerusalem, from a human standpoint, didn’t make much sense. Nehemiah was a white color worker. As the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes, he likely had little ability as a wall builder, yet he was the one God selected. But as we viewed Scripture from the 30,000 foot level, we noticed that this was frequently the case, that God regularly chose unlikely individuals to accomplish His task. Let me explain what I mean by the 30,000 foot level, it is a phrase commonly used in the business world. If you and I are standing above an ant and watching it as it hauls some piece of food twice it’s size, we see things the ant doesn’t see, we see obstacles the ant doesn’t see, but we also get a good overview of where the ant has been, we are looking from the 30,000 foot level. In our 30,000 foot level look at Scripture, we specifically looked at 5 individuals out of the many who, like Nehemiah, didn’t really make much sense but that God specifically chose.

We looked at the childless Abraham, who was chosen by God at the age of 75 to be that father of many nations. A promise God didn’t fulfill for another 24 years, when Abraham had a child at the age of 99.

We looked at Moses, a murderer with a speech impediment, who God chose to be His spokesman before the most powerful leader in the world.

We looked at Rahab, a Gentile prostitute, whose faith and repentant heart added her name in the genealogy of Jesus, Himself.

We looked at the small overlooked shepherd boy David, whom God chose to replace King Saul as the next king of Israel.

We looked at Jonah, the fleeing prophet, who God used to preach messages that brought about the repentance of an entire major city.

And lastly we looked at God’s choice of Matthew, the hated tax collector, to be one of the original 12 Apostles, who literally transformed the world through the proclamation of the Gospel.

In the end we determined that what God wanted then and “What God wants of you and me now, is willing and available servants, the rest is up to Him.” God loves taking individuals the world looks at as insignificant, and accomplishing the unexplainable, that people would understand that it was God that did the work, the individual was just a tool in the Hands of the Master Craftsman.

The other thing we looked at in the life of Nehemiah was that he had a heart for God and a heart for others, these are traits God loves to see in His willing and available servants.

This was certainly what we saw in Nehemiah, the unlikely wall builder. God gave Nehemiah an impossible task to complete, and it wasn’t just an impossible task, this came on the heels of receiving devastating news from his brother, who had recently returned from Judah. News that initially set Nehemiah’s world in a tailspin. In fact, as I look at the beginning of Nehemiah 1:4, I believe that Nehemiah may have been overcome with a bout of deep depression. Look at the start of that verse: Next Slide

“4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days”

Nehemiah 1:4 ESV

4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

It is hard for me to imagine spending several days weeping and mourning without deep depression being present.

So, why is this important to us this morning?

I’ll tell you why, there are likely several here this morning that have had their own bouts with depression, and many times we incorrectly think that depression should never be present in the wholly devoted follower of Christ.

You know what we see in the person of Nehemiah? We see that: Next Slides

Nehemiah was just like us.

To be honest with you, I take great encouragement in God seeing to it that Nehemiah record these exact thoughts.

Our tendency much of the time is to gloss over our struggles. We run into people from church or we see people at church, and they ask us how we are doing, and we respond with our customary reply,

“Oh man, I’m living the dream”

“Doing great”

“I’m doing well, what about you?”

They may even ask us specifically about something we are really struggling with or going through and we smile and reply, “You know, God’s got this!” And while this is a true statement, we hide our true feelings behind our fake smile.

The reality is, we are torn up inside and we pretend it’s all great.

Nehemiah doesn’t do that, He sat down and mourned and then recorded it for all to see.

You know there are things we face in life that should cause us to mourn, and our weeping and mourning are not a sign of weakness. We will see as we go through this book, that Nehemiah was as tough as nails, but here at the outset he mourns, he doesn’t hide it behind a fake smile and a canned response, he records it on the pages of Scripture under the inspiration of God, Himself.

We closed out our introduction into the Book of Nehemiah looking at the impossible task God had given to this unlikely wall builder, a task that was so huge that I imagine Nehemiah looked at and thought;

I don’t even know where to begin!

Have you been in one of those before? Maybe you’re there right now. You look at your situation and think, I don’t even know where to start?

My marriage is such a mess right now, I don’t have any idea what to do.

My child is so messed up I don’t know where to start.

We are so far in debt right now that I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel.

The report I got from my Dr. last week, this is terrible news and it is so much bigger than I am.....I am in over my head!

This is exactly the kind of situation Nehemiah found himself in when he sits down on the ground right there and he begins to weep.

And by the way, we aren’t just talking about watery eyes here, the Hebrew word used here gives the picture of uncontrollable tears. His heart is broken at the news and at the knowledge that he doesn’t even know where to begin.

The question is: Next Slide

What do you do when you are in that place where you don’t even know where to begin?

Scripture tells us what Nehemiah did:

You do what Nehemiah did.

Verse 4 goes on the say: Next Slide

“and I continued fasting and praying...”

Nehemiah 1:4 ESV

4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Make sure to adjust powerpoint presentation

Right here I imagine that Nehemiah is thinking, “I don’t know where to begin, but I know Who does!”.

He goes on to tell us Who it is he went before;

Next Slide

“before the God of Heaven”

Nehemiah 1:4 ESV

4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

This is where we begin, This is where we begin! This type of response should not be where we end, it should be where we begin.

And while we are at it, let’s not wait for the big things, let’s start with the little things, so that when the big things come, and they will come, we have the habit of going to God already established.

Nehemiah was in what looked like an impossible situation and the only thing he knew to do was to bring it before the God of Heaven, so he bowed his head and he prayed.

Let’s spend the rest of our time this morning looking at the prayer of Nehemiah in verses 5-11.

As we prepare to look at Nehemiah’s prayer, as I have been thinking over Nehemiah’s prayer in the past few weeks, a thought occured to me. You know there are many many times in Scripture we see individuals talk about or address prayer, but there are only a few places where that individual actually writes down their prayer. When we see someone, under the inspiration of the God of the Universe, write down their prayer, I think we need to pay special attention to that written prayer. We are going to do that this morning.

Please stand with your copies of God’s Word open as I read.

“5 And I said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God Who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments, 6 let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, to hear the prayer of Your servant that I now pray before You day and night for the people of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against You. Even I and my father’s house have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that You commanded your servant Moses. 8 Remember the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, 9 but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make My name dwell there.’ 10 They are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand. 11 O Lord, let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who delight to fear Your name, and give success to Your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”

Now I was cupbearer to the king.”

Please be seated.

As we look at Nehemiah’s prayer this morning, I want to address something that at times stops us in our tracks when it comes to prayer. We look at prayers like the one recorded by Nehemiah here, or we listen to leaders in the church pray, and we think to ourselves, “I can’t pray like that! Why would God even pay attention to any prayer I might bring to Him?” That kind of thinking is not only dangerous, it is also wrong.

Do you know what prayer is? It is nothing more than a conversation with God, and believe me, we don’t need religious flowery language for God to understand us. So, don’t be to intimidated to pray, just start your conversation with God like any other conversation. Pour your heart out to Him, He understands you completely.

“O LORD God of heaven” - What is meant by heaven?

Nehemiah begins his prayer by saying “O LORD God of heaven”. As I was looking at this prayer, and doing some research on it, it became clear that this prayer starts very similar to the way Jesus began the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6. Jesus starts by saying; “Our Father, Who art in heaven”. Something I found interesting, and actually quite key for us today is the word used for “heaven” in both Nehemiah and in the Lords Prayer in Matthew 6. In most instances when we see the word “heaven” particularly in the Bible, we think of the dwelling place for God. But the word used in these two prayers has way more to it than just the dwelling place for God. While it does include the heavens above, it also includes the entire universe, including every corner of this earth we live on.

Now perhaps right now you are wondering why this is such a big deal and why it is so key for us today. Before I get into why it is key for us today, I want to look at why it was so important to Nehemiah.

To do that, let me ask you a couple of questions. To answer you’re going to have to look a few verses up to verses 1 & 2.

Where is Nehemiah when he lifts this prayer to God?

(Susa/Sushan-the Persian Capital).

Where are the people he is praying for?

(Jerusalem/Judah).

So, the people Nehemiah is praying for are close to 900 miles away, a journey of at least 4 months.

This brings us to why this was so important for Nehemiah and why it is so key for us today as well.

Where is God?

This God, Whom Nehemiah is praying to in the prayer we are looking at this morning, is not just the God who dwells in the heavens above, He is the God Who exists everywhere in the Universe, He is the God Who dwells in every corner of this earth you and I inhabit.

Please don’t miss this truth. Nehemiah is heartbroken over the condition of Jerusalem, he is heartbroken over the struggles of his people back in Jerusalem, 900 miles away. With all his heart he longs to be there to help, to come alongside his people, but he can’t be there. So, Who does he lift his prayer too? He prays to the God Who is there, right there in Jerusalem. Nehemiah can’t be there to come alongside his people in Jerusalem, but Almighty God can and Almighty God is.

Nehemiah, at the start of this prayer is saying, God, I am here 900 miles away and unable to help my people, but you are there and I trust them into Your Almighty Hands.

So what does this mean to us this morning? It’s hard to top how David summed this up in Psalm 139:1-12. Let me read it to us this morning:

Psalm 139:1-12

“1O LORD, you have searched me and known me! 2You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 4Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. 5You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. 6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.

7Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 9If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 11If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” 12even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.”

Who is God?

Nehemiah goes on to say; Oh LORD God (Who is everywhere)

“the great and awesome God”

The word used here for “great” means great in any and every sense.

Ok, so I know He is great, but is He wise? Yes, he is great in any and every sense!

I know He’s great but this is huge....are you sure He can handle this? Yes, He is great in any and every sense, there is nothing to Huge for Him!

But what about......

But what about....

Not only is He great in any and every sense, but that word also means “Exceedingly mighty”. So it doesn’t matter how big it is, it doesn’t matter if it is bigger than you and me, it cannot be bigger than our Exceedingly Mighty God Who is great and mighty in every sense.

Nehemiah needed to remind himself that the God he was praying too was completely able to handle this seemingly impossible situation, Nehemiah needed to remind himself that he could completely trust all of this into the Hands of that Great and Mighty God.

You know, I think you and I need to do the same thing here this morning. We need to remind ourselves that there is nothing we cannot trust into the Hands of our Great and Awesome God, our God Who is great in any and every sense, and not just great, Exceedingly great and mighty.

Of course you know, as cool as it is that God is Exceedingly great and mighty, that may not be enough.

You know who one of the greatest leaders during the early part of the Revolutionary War was? This man led many significant battles from 1775 through 1778, many of these battles he led he faced insurmountable odds and really should have lost, but he was such a great leader that he rarely faced defeat. Soon he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General and before long the rank of Major General. There was a time he was one of George Washington’s most trusted Generals. But midway through 1778, things began to change and by 1780 he was providing military secrets to the British. This once great General was Benedict Arnold, a name now synonymous with treachery and deceit.

The truth is, it is not enough that our God is Exceedingly Great and Awesome. Which is why Nehemiah’s prayer goes on to say:

“Who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments”

Not only is our God is Exceedingly Great and Awesome, on top of that He is worthy of our trust!

We will finish this prayer next week, but right now, I want to close out our time this morning with a true story told by an old man who had been a missionary in Africa many years ago. He watched the Hand of God completely transform the small African village he was called too. This particular village had worshipped many gods over the years, but they had never heard of a God Who actually loved them. One by one virtually everyone in this small village trusted in this God of love. They were so moved by His love, that they began to go off by themselves each day and seek Him in prayer, often times for hours at a time and usually multiple times a day. Before long they each began to wear trails into the bush, and then the trails became paths worn all the way to the dirt.

There was great accountability amongst these brothers in Christ and if any one had become complacent and had slipped into neglecting their personal time of prayer with God, the men of the tribe would go to that individual and tell them: Next Slide

“My brother grass is growing on your path.”

You want to know what it was that set Nehemiah apart from pretty much every other Jew that was a part of Persian Empire? It wasn’t his ability to build, he wasn’t a builder at all, he was the cupbearer to the king.

What set this ordinary man apart from all others was, there was no grass growing on his path.

It is what will set us apart as well, God accomplishes extraordinary things through ordinary people who don’t let grass grown on their paths.